Resilient transformation of the Vesdre river basin (Belgium) following the 2021 floods

Recently, Wieke Pot and Mathilde De Goër De Herve published an article discussing ‘water resilience’ and analysing the 2021 floods in Wallonia. See below for a summary. For the full article, please follow this link.

Dual crises happen when an acute shock unfolds in the context of a creeping crisis. The July 2021 floods in the Vesdre river basin (Wallonia, Belgium) is a typical case of a dual crisis in the form of an extreme flood event in the context of climate change. This study analyses the mayor’s and policy responses after the flood to find whether these responses will help to strengthen long-term resilience for the region. We found that, in general, the window of opportunity to improve disaster resilience has been seized. Several studies were initiated by the Walloon region that shape the idea of an ideal future for the river basin and give recommendations for how to reach it. The recommendations are considered flexible enough to adapt strategies to future contexts, but no monitoring and evaluation system for doing so has been implemented so far. All temporal strategies that mayor’s implicitly adopt in the aftermath of the flood are shaped by the institutional policy arrangement existing of: resources, actors, power, and formal rules. These policy dimensions notably slow down the implementation of disaster resilience strategies and limit the adopted time horizons. A structural transformation of the institutional policy arrangement is therefore needed to facilitate the consideration of long-term resilience during the recovery process from disasters.

Authors: Wieke Pot and Mathilde De Goër De Herve